The island's continued division has hindered closer relations between Turkey and Greece. Cyprus has also been a major stumbling block in Ankara's lagging negotiations to join the European Union.

Turkey is obliged to open its ports to Cyprus - an EU member it does not recognise - under a trade pact with the EU. It refuses to do so until the 27-nation bloc fulfils its pledge to ease the international isolation of the breakaway and internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The row has led to the freezing of talks on eight of the 35 policy areas a candidate country must successfully negotiate prior to EU membership.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded the north on July 20, 1974 after a Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the junta then ruling Athens and aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

Although the coup was short-lived, Ankara has since maintained more than 35,000 troops in Cyprus's northern third.

But critics have warned that it will pave the way for the key Western ally to become an Islamic state.

The reforms, expected to be adopted after a referendum on Sunday, will alter the constitution, originally introduced after a military coup in 1980, to enshrine the elected government's control over the military and the judiciary.